Bettie Eubanks’ goal as an artist is having her work inspire harmony and peace for those purchasing it and or viewing it.
“Really when it comes down to it, art for me is all about how to share love, peace and harmony,” said Bettie Eubanks, a longtime Palm Coast artist with an emphasis on painting who is participating in an October show at the African American Cultural Society located in Bunnell. “My goal is that the art I produce brings something to the buyer’s home that says they want to be at peace and in a place of harmony.”
Thus, it isn’t a stretch to discover that her October 2021 show at the AACS is slated to feature several of her original artworks with the words “harmony” and “peace” included in the titles.
The month-long show is a 30-year retrospective of Eubanks’ work but also includes examples of her work from the 1960s which is closer to 60 years ago than the three decades that the bulk of the show will include.
“I am a hippie. I like to say I am a product of the 1960s because I became an adult in the 60s. It shaped much of who I am today, so, of course, I have to include some work from that time frame,” said Eubanks.
Other pieces attendees can expect to see include Eubanks’ work from the late 1960s and early 1970s when she lived in Woodstock, New York, and was using the wood siding from area barns as her medium of choice.
Nope, she didn’t get to attend the infamous music festival. She had just had a baby and was in no position to attend.
But the Woodstock area provided her with plenty of buyers including the owner of a local store who bought out the inventory she had at the time. That larger sale helped fund her acquisition of other art supplies including better brushes, real canvas, and paints.
The show will also include Eubanks’ clown paintings from 30 years ago. “I don’t paint clowns anymore,” she said with a laugh.
From clowns, her work moved toward the use of texture, and she endeavored to include this newfound skill in nature scenes from the Catskill Mountains.
“I was exploring the texture of things and was painting in a style that used texture to pull the subjects forward so that when people looked at the painting they were never looking at a flat canvas,” Eubanks explained.
The paintings included in the show will be for sale, she said. However, buyers have to agree to let the painting hang for the duration of the exhibit.
The African American Culture Society is located at 4422 N. U.S. Highway 1 in Bunnell. You can learn more about Bettie Eubanks at her website, www.bettieeubanks.com.
— Amy Armstrong
